Cover Image: A Patchwork of Clues

A Patchwork of Clues

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Member Reviews

A delightful cozy mystery with well-crafted characters and easy to follow storyline.

In A Patchwork of Clues, we are in a small town of quilters when a murder takes place. Since violent crimes are not common in these parts, Join the fun as they try to figure out who is the killer.

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This was a fun, cute cozy mystery! I love the theme throughout, and I will definitely be continuing with the series.

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Princess Fuzzypants here: Portia or Po, and her merry band of quilters must solve the murder of the beloved college professor whose body Po finds at the back door of the quilting store she frequents. It turns out bodies are not good for business and soon the shop is suffering from a lack of anything but curiosity seekers. It’s been a mainstay for 50 years. The quilters are making something special to celebrate but decide their sleuthing talents are even more valuable to the owner if it can save her business.
Things and people in these stories are never what they seem at first and it seems our professor had a few skeletons in his closet. Someone took those skeletons very personally. Did it have anything to do with his influence on local businesses or his work at the college? What was bad enough for murder?
Naturally the ladies uncover the villain whom I suspected about half way through. I did truly enjoy the developing relationship between Po’s two godchildren- in spite of the fact that neither of them have any idea of the bond they share. In fact, I found the various relationships in the stories almost swamped the mystery. There is nothing wrong with that. If you like character based books, like I do, you will find this highly enjoyable.
I give it four purrs and two paws up.

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This is a re print of the original book called : Murders on Elderberry Road. If you havent read it this is a great way to get started on a new series . With some characters who get together and quilt ans solve mysteries. Looking forward to learn more about these women and the future books.

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On her morning jog, Portia Paltrow comes upon the dead body of antiques store owner and college professor Owen Hill, sprawled across the back doorstep of Selma Parker's fabric and quilt shop on Elderberry Road. The site of their Saturday morning quilting bee just became a crime scene. Violent crime is rare in the charming village of Crestwood, Kansas, and rumors are soon circulating of a burglary gone wrong. But who would rob a quilt shop? No, Owen Hill has been murdered.

The quilting ladies decide to work together to find out whodunit, before another murder occurs.

This is a busy book. I enjoyed parts of it, and was frustrated by others.

The town setting was perfect. The descriptions were well written, and painted a perfect picture. That in itself made the book fun to read. However, I felt there were too many characters to keep track of, and I needed to write down who was who to keep track of the characters. To me that was a little distracting. However, the characters were well drawn. They were all different and had their own personalities, which made them fun to get to know.

The mystery was good, and I enjoyed the conclusion. But in the end, I'm not sure this is a series I will continue with. I will wait a bit before reading the second book, and we'll see where it goes from there.

I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

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I enjoyed this book! It took me awhile to discern all of the different characters, but after a few chapters I found myself thoroughly engrossed and liked what I read. The story is well plotted and the characters well developed. I look forward to more in this series.

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My rating: 2 of 5 stars, it was okay.

Book 1 in the series.

I enjoy Ms. Goldenbaum's knitting series, so I decided to give this new series a try. As the first book in the series, she does a good job introducing all the characters, but it slowed the pace of the book down so much that I really struggled to maintain interest. I ended up putting this book down several times. before finally the characters started actually working on solving the mystery.

Once it got going, things moved fairly quickly and I enjoyed the story. I will look forward to the next book, and hope that all the long intros are out of the way.

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A Patchwork of Clues is a cute, lighthearted cozy mystery. Po Paltrow is a strong female character and I like that she is an older protagonist (60s). It provides a different perspective. The quilters are various ages and have diverse personalities (a character for every reader). They are friendly group of women who support each other. It is cute how Po, with help from the other ladies, is working to set up her goddaughter, Kate Simpson with Officer PJ Flanigan. The author took the time to establish the characters and describe the Elderberry Shops which is good since this is a character driven cozy mystery. The mystery was clear-cut and not the main focus of the book. The body is found at the beginning (in the first chapter), but the investigating does not begin until the second half of the book. While I knew who committed the crime, the why took longer to uncover. The quilters were eager to dig into the mystery which is obvious when they say, “Let’s sleuth!”. A Patchwork of Clues needed more action which would have helped the pacing. There are plenty of cozy moments with quilting, chatting, eating, and drinking wine. I enjoyed the fabric descriptions and the information on quilting. There is mild foul language in the story. I was happy to see an epilogue that tidily wrapped up everything tidily like a beautifully bound quilt. A Patchwork of Clues has eager quilters, charming shops, serious suspects, fabulous fabrics, and a sexagenarian sleuth.

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A Patchwork of Clues was a charming and light read with some great characters. The mystery and the solving was a bit slow, but that's not a bad thing in this book as I loved "hanging out" with the characters, especially the quilt group.

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A Patchwork of Clues - Portia Paltrow finds the dead body of antiques store owner and college professor Owen Hill on the doorstep of Selma Parker’s fabric and quilt shop on Elderberry Road. Likeable characters, 24 of them. The plot was pleasant but on the light side. A little too much detail at times and a tad drawn out. Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced reader’s copy for review.

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Enjoyed this book. Kept me interested all the way through. Would recommend to a fellow reader. Love the cover.

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A Patchwork of Clues is a charming mystery. The characters are well developed and interesting. The story is well written and held my interest from the first page. Thanks netgalley and Kensington for the arc, the review is my opinion

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Crestwood, Kansas is a college town with a charming main street of shops. Po, an author, has organized a quilt group that meets at the quilt shop. On an early morning walk, Po discovers Owen Hill murdered in the alley. The quilt group becomes involved in solving the murder.

This book has great characters. I love the women of the quilt group. My only disappointment was this is a rewrite of a book that I had already read. I would like to read the next books in the series.

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A Patchwork of Clues is a very good cozy mystery. I enjoyed the plot, cast of characters and this author’s writing. I look forward to reading more books in this series. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my digital arc. This is my unbiased review.

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I enjoy reading about knitting and quilting mysteries even though I can barely sew on a button or hem a skirt and knit one, purl one is as far as I can get with knitting. Sally Goldenbaum's Seaside Knitter's Society series is one of my favorites and I was glad to get an advance copy of this new series. As the first book in this, so far, three book series, it is a bit slow even though the crime is front and center very early on. The victim owns an antique store and teaches at the local college. What was he doing at the quilt shop on a weekend morning? I expected Portia and her friends to start investigating right then. Instead, there is a lot of time spent building both the many characters and the setting and that made it drag a bit for me. I guess I wanted more investigating and less detail of all of the members of the quilting group at the beginning. Having already enjoyed her previous books I knew my patience would be rewarded and it was.
Once I was introduced to the characters, especially Portia, I found them to be people I would like to spend more time around. The mystery, while slow to get going, turned out to be satisfying and I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.
My thanks to the publisher, Lyrical Underground and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Much like the ladies in the Seaside Knitters in this author's other series, this is another awesome group of women who have each others' backs no matter what. It doesn't hurt that they all seem to like a good mystery as well. It seemed like a larger group of characters to get to know, but by the end of the book I definitely knew that Po as the unspoken leader of the group was my favorite. She had an amazing sense of family and loved to surround herself with her friends whom she considered to be like family.

The oldest member, Eleanor Canterbury really cracked me up! She was sharp, spunky, and even though she came from money, she's as down-to-earth as the rest of the friends. I honestly had no idea who the killer was until the clues started coming, and the showdown was great! I'm glad that these books were given a face lift, as the new covers are super attractive and fun! And I do like the updated titles as well.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

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A Patchwork of Clues was a sweet beginning to a new to me cozy mystery series. The plot was well paced and kept me interested, and the setting was charming. But what I liked most was the characters. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better in further installments of the series.

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This book was more like women's fiction with a side of murder mystery. The focus is a quilting group in small town Kansas. Each woman is introduced and each has her role to play. The story is mostly about what Portia is doing, what the other quilting group members are doing and what is happening in a section of their town where the murder occurs.
I enjoyed the tone of the book. It was interesting to have the mystery be more of an afterthought. I would recommend getting to know the quilters in this Kansas town.
I haven't read much by this author and was not aware it was a reprint. I thought it was a newly published book.

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While this isn't the same type of knitting/quilting type of mystery I've read in the past, I loved it. All the mystery, intrigue and plot twists and turns kept me not only on my toes, but wanting to read more! I can't wait to find out what happens in the next installment!

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A Patchwork of Clues is the first in this new quilting series. I really enjoy crafting cozies and this is a new author for me. I liked that the murder happened early in the story. However, solving it seemed to be put on the back burner as the author spent so much time describing all the various characters--too many for me.. I liked that the main character, Po, was a widow in her 60's--so she was more relatable to me than a 20-something owning her own business, but I just didn't connect with the others. I am hoping the next book will focus more on solving the mystery and less on the characters' day-to-day existence. While giving this book three stars, I'd like to read the next book in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lyrical Underground/Kensington for a digital copy of this book. My review is voluntary.

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